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Show 80. had read all the books he could find on the subject and even sent to the Flying Saucer Society for their literature. He'd passed the paperbacks on to JD and condensed the library copies for him during sixth periods. He knew he was one of the few kids at school who took JD's word for the UFO sighting. "I keep thinking about what might have happened during the time I blacked out," JD confided. "When Stephanie was gone. What really happened?" Chic didn't say anything at first. JD's question was a dead giveaway. He must think something had happened or he wouldn't be psyched about it. "Got any theories?" Chic asked. "What if . . ." JD leaned forward, like he was getting this idea for the first time, "what if I was taken into that UFO? You know, and examined or injected or something? What if they tampered with my brain? How would I ever know?" Chic accelerated to keep the taillights of the bus in sight. Peering through the paths made by his inefficient windshield wipers, he hoped the snow wouldn't get any heavier before they reached Red Butte. "Hypnosis," Chic said, coming back to JD, who looked like he'd been left talking to himself. "You could find out under hypnosis, couldn't you?" "You asked me about that before. And I thought about it. But my chances for getting to a psychiatrist are about one in a billion." "Yeah, you'd have to go to Cheyenne or Denver. And they'd charge a hundred or two before you ever got to the couch." Silence settled tentatively between them. The windshield wipers continued their thumping and scraping in rhythm. Chic was thinking. Like he'd said before, why couldn't he hypnotize JD? He'd done it in a demonstration in health class and had put three out of five in a trance. He'd hypnotized kids at parties, just for fun. He didn't think he could hurt anyone. "JD," Chic tried to bring it up easy. "No, Chic, I don't think we'd better." |